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• Robert N. Thompson and Political Realignment
  by Geoffrey Olson

Robert Thompson grew up around Innisfail, Alberta and was elected Social Credit Member of Parliament for Red Deer in 1962. In 1968, Thompson’s candidacy for the Progressive Conservative nomination in Red Deer was part of Ernest Manning’s attempt to create a united conservative political party in Canada. In this article, Geoffrey Olson describes the local drama of this and provides valuable historical context for the attempts to ‘Unite the Right’ to the present.

• Raising the Tabernacle
  by David Ridley

The Maxwell Memorial Tabernacle at Three Hills is more than an important meeting place for those affiliated with Prairie Bible Institute. From its construction to the present, it is a symbol of the history, work and understanding of a religious movement.

• Records of Religious Schools in the Red Deer District
  by Michael Dawe

The establishment of educational institutions in central Alberta is closely linked to church and religious organizations. Michael Dawe, Red Deer archivist and historian provides an overview of the records on these organizations held at the Red Deer and District Archives

• Red Deer and the Law, 1900-20
  by Jonathan Swainger

While the North-West Mounted Police were the presence of the law in the founding of Red Deer, the early founders and families played a crucial role in defining the meaning of law and order in the years before 1920. Jonathan Swainger looks at the people, circumstances and motivations that shaped law and order in one prairie community. The connection between early founders with legal position in Red Deer and the building of the community are closely linked.

• Reverend Mr. John Nelson: Missionary with an Impossible Mission
  by Uta H. Fox

From 1893 to 1919, the Red Deer Industrial School was one of many schools funded by Canada’s federal government and managed by religious denominations. The first principal of the School, Reverend John Nelson of the Methodist Church of Canada, was tasked with providing an institution for Aboriginal children where the work of ‘Christianizing, Civilizing and Canadianizing’ would take place, resulting in assimilation into the larger society. Ute Fox describes the challenges faced by Nelson, from insufficient funding to the Methodist Church’s declining interest in missions to Aboriginal peoples.

• Searching for Robert Rundle
  by Gerald Hutchinson

In 1950, Gerald Hutchinson was a young clergyman who had arrived on the north shore of Pigeon Lake and asked why ‘Mission Beach’ was so named. The question began the ‘merry chase’ that has resulted in a picture of the early Methodist missionaries, such as Robert Terrill Rundle, and the legacy of the mission era in the region.

• A Sense of Vocation
  by Helen Hunley

Helen Hunley was the first woman to be appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta. Active in Alberta municipal and provincial politics, she was also the first woman to be given full ministerial status in the Alberta government. In this article Helen Hunley reflects on her vocation to community and political life connected to her childhood near Rocky Mountain House.

• Spiritual Disciplines: The Body and Health at Canadian Union College
  by Deane Nelson

Canadian University College was established in 1907 near Lacombe, Alberta, by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Deane Nelson describes the importance and understanding of ‘healthful living’ in the school’s curriculum. The Adventist concern for health and the holistic nature of human is connected to the denominations work in health and health reform.

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